THE EDITOR, Sir:
THE GOOD thing about art is that it can be interpreted differently by each listener or onlooker. I have listened keenly to the debates about the piece of art by the entrance of Emancipation Park. Some comments have evoked wry amusement, while others have caused me to wonder at the contempt that those in the upper two per cent of the intellectual elite have for those that they consider beneath them.
The unwashed hordes are lambasted because they do not understand symbolism and they hate their own nakedness or blackness. It reminds me of the story of the Emperor's New Clothes. While the enlightened and erudite praised the emperor who had been conned by two tailors into thinking that he was dressed in beautiful clothes, it was an innocent child who told him what he was - naked!
Much reference has been made to nude paintings and sculptures done by Europeans. What I find funny is that those influences from which we say we are emancipated, are the very ones that we imitate and use as reference. The process of brainwashing has been so thorough that we have now become conceited studies in contradiction.
My personal interpretation is that the bronze sculptures are a fitting tribute to the droves of mad people who seem to be increasing daily. The freedom of madness causes them to display their assets and sometimes liabilities, with nary a care in the world, naked and unashamed.
I am, etc.,
A. MAE WILLS
Kingston 10
